The Jets have completed a simple restructure on James Carpenter‘s contract, according to Field Yates of ESPN.com, who tweets that the team converted a portion of the veteran guard’s 2016 salary into a signing bonus. The move had been necessary to create room for the addition of nose tackle Steve McLendon.
Carpenter’s $4.45MM base salary had already been partially guaranteed, but the Jets assured the lineman of a little more of that money up front by turning $3.69MM of it into a signing bonus, leaving a minimum salary of $760K. For cap purposes, that signing bonus prorates over the next three seasons, meaning it reduces Carpenter’s 2016 cap charge by $2.46MM, and increases his 2017 and 2018 charges by $1.23MM apiece.
According to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News (via Twitter), the Jets’ new deal with McLendon features a cap number of $2.5MM for 2016, including a $1.75MM base salary and a prorated portion of his $2.25MM signing bonus. In other words, the reduction of Carpenter’s cap hit gives the team almost the exact amount it needed to accommodate McLendon’s contract.
Further restructures, cuts, or trades will be required for the Jets in the coming weeks, as OverTheCap.com had the team at just $2.282MM in cap space prior to the Carpenter and McLendon transactions. Of course, adding a player like Ryan Fitzpatrick to the club’s books will require a few million dollars in cap room. At the very least, New York will need to create the space necessary to sign its rookie class and to allow for a little in-season flexibility.
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